Time Management Tip: Managing Your Morning News Routine

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Image of Phrase Managing Your Morning News Routine Do you have trouble tearing yourself away from your computer or smart phone in the morning to go to school or work?

Do you wonder where all the time went while watching your favorite morning TV news program…even if you woke up early?

Today’s post is going to cover a different side of time management — how you manage your media intake in the morning!

The inspiration for this post occurred to me the other day as I was watching a morning TV news program. I personally find it difficult to get ready in the morning when watching TV news; there’s too many tantalizing interviews, news updates and the like that keep me interested and glued to the screen. I prefer the constant chatter of news radio, which allows me to do things around the house and get ready for the day without having to focus on a screen.

We have a lot of different methods of receiving news and information available to us in this day and age, but are you using the right one for your needs? Here are a few items to consider in your daily morning routine:

What news or information do you need in the morning?

Are you most interested in what the weather will be doing during the day? How about traffic? Perhaps you are more interested in the top news stories, sports and entertainment updates? List out the information you need to get ready for your day.

Try out different media.

Do you have a preferred morning information source? If so, do you know why? Are you able to focus and better retain the information presented to you or is your preference just out of plain old habit? Do you find yourself regularly losing track of time when tuning in? For example, right now you watch the weather on television and find yourself losing track of time, but you might find receiving weather email updates or checking a weather app on your phone to be quicker and more convenient for you. Experiment with the following information channels to see which ones work best for you:

Radio

  • News radio stations
  • Talk radio stations
  • Morning music and entertainment radio shows

TV

  • Dedicated news, weather/traffic or sports channels
  • Broadcast or cable morning talk/entertainment shows

Computer/Internet/Smartphone

  • Internet radio (including any one of the above radio stations as well as daily pod casts)
  • Dedicated apps (weather, traffic, news, sports, entertainment)
  • Dedicated news, weather/traffic or sports channel websites
  • Email updates from websites
  • Social media feeds – Twitter feed, Facebook, etc.

Add your preferred media to your daily routine.

Once you’ve figured out the information you need as well as your preferred medium, add it into your daily routine and stick by it. Avoid any and all time-sucking media that don’t agree with your morning ritual; for example, you might become completely immersed when listening to classic rock stations in the morning and find yourself losing track of time easily. Remember, the goal of this exercise is to have you collect the information you need quickly so you can get on with your day. Carpe diem!

Now to you… what’s your favorite media outlet or method of receiving information in the mornings? Leave a comment below and join in the conversation!

Kick chaos to the curb with The Order Expert! Subscribe to our email updates and receive free access to The Order Expert’s mini eBook, 10 Chaos-Kicking Tips for a Clutter-Free Closet. You can also stay in touch with The Order Expert on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Google+.

Want to bring your life and/or small business into blissful balance? Please visit Rashelle’s coaching and consulting site at www.rashelleisip.com.

How Can The Order Expert Help You Kick Chaos to The Curb?

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Image of the phrase Need Help Kicking Chaos to the Curb?If you could have a tool to help you better manage your belongings, time and energy, what would it be?

Today’s post is a bit different from my usual posts. I’ve got a big announcement that involves you, dear reader.

What’s the big news? I’m starting a new project related to The Order Expert — my very first product for purchase!

This upcoming product (an eBook and/or other materials yet to be determined) will feature the usual great content, tips, tricks, ideas and inspiration that I share on the blog, but will be even more focused and detailed on a specific subject within the realms of organization, productivity and time management.

While I’m excited to get started on this project, I’ve realized once again that I can’t do it alone. There’s something very valuable that is missing before I can create this product…input from my followers and readers!

As such, I’ve created a short, ten-question survey on Survey Monkey to help collect information about my readers’ interests and challenges when it comes to the subjects of organizing, productivity and time management.

The survey will be up for one week and will close Thursday, May 28th 2013 at 11:30PM EDT. The survey is anonymous and your responses will not be shared with any third-parties.

When the survey is complete, I’ll go through all the answers and choose a subject that resonates with the most amount of responses. I’ll then start working on creating The Order Expert’s first product for purchase.

What can I create for you that will help you the most in your life when it comes to organization, time management and productivity?

Ready to take the survey? Click here to be taken to the survey page.

Do you have a question about the survey? Please feel free to email me and I’ll get back to you shortly.

I’m really excited about this next step in the evolution of The Order Expert and I do hope you’ll take a couple of minutes to complete the survey and voice your thoughts.

Thank you for your continued support!

Yours in order,

Rashelle

Kick chaos to the curb with The Order Expert! Subscribe to our email updates and receive free access to The Order Expert’s mini eBook, 10 Chaos-Kicking Tips for a Clutter-Free Closet. You can also stay in touch with The Order Expert on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Google+.

Want to bring your life and/or small business into blissful balance? Please visit Rashelle’s coaching and consulting site at www.rashelleisip.com.

Do the Keys to Productivity Lie in the Past?

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Image of Phrase Do the Keys to Productivity Lie in the Past?I came across an interesting news story yesterday from NBC Nightly News called “Tapping into old tech: Typewriters make a comeback.” As soon as I watched the story I knew I had to blog about it. Why? It’s a great example of how our quest for increased productivity using multiple-use tech devices cannot be matched by the quiet simplicity of the single-function devices of yesteryear.

The news story features three very interesting groups of people who are enjoying the recent resurgence: a typewriter repair man who has seen a jump in business over the past few years with younger folks, children in schools working on typewriters to practice their concentration skills and those people who simply prefer working on a typewriter. What struck me the most was the interview with the school children. They relished the fact that a typewriter only allows one to type (how novel) and not perform any other function, be it email, social media application, chat or online games. What does it mean exactly for us as a society when today’s high-tech children find solace in a noticeably low-tech device as a typewriter?

It’s a bit ironic how the functions of devices of years past, once thrown aside in favor of more faster, complex and supposedly more productive devices such as computers, are now suddenly coming back into favor. Just take a look at any new word processing software or internet browser; many offer a special “Focus” mode that allows the user to focus solely on the task at hand, be it typing a document or reading an article on the internet without any distractions.

Maybe the lesson in all of this is that we need take a break from our fast-paced world of multiple-function devices and return to the technical mindset of yesteryear. Perhaps we need to return to a time where typing was only done on typewriters (not computers), where telephones are simply telephones (not cameras), where fax machines are simply fax machines (not scanners, printers, phones and copiers). Who knows, we might find ourselves better able to focus and concentrate on our work and get things done faster.

Now to you…what other devices of yesteryear do you think will make a comeback in our society? Any predictions as to what the future may bring? Leave a comment below and join in the conversation!

Kick chaos to the curb with The Order Expert! Subscribe to our email updates and receive free access to The Order Expert’s mini eBook, 10 Chaos-Kicking Tips for a Clutter-Free Closet. You can also stay in touch with The Order Expert on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Google+.

Want to bring your life and/or small business into blissful balance? Please visit Rashelle’s coaching and consulting site at www.rashelleisip.com.

Organizing Tip: Filing Basics

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Image of phrase Filing BasicsDoes the thought of filing papers fill you with a sense of dread?

Today’s post covers a few basics to help make filing paper documents easy.

Make a “To File” Inbox.

Give items to be filed a temporary home by creating a “To File” inbox. This inbox allows you to keep recently processed documents contained and prevents them from wandering about and cluttering up your workstation. When the inbox in full, simply file items. An added bonus of the “To File” inbox is that there’s only one or two places where a recently processed document should be: filed away or in the “To File” inbox.

Create files with the purpose of retrieval.

Whenever you create a new file, or evaluate the contents of an existing file, take a moment to consider whether or not your future self would be able to easily retrieve the items. If it’s not easy for you to figure out what should go inside the file now, chances are it will be even more difficult for you to figure out how an item should be filed in future. Be as clear and specific as necessary when labeling and creating files.

File time-sensitive documents in reverse chronological order.

When filing recurring items such as monthly bills stubs or other payment records, file documents by placing more current or recent items on top of older ones. This makes it easier to retrieve items and check any recent billing or account discrepancies should they arise in the near future. The oldest record for a year (January) should be in the back of the folder, while the most current record for a year (the previous month’s stubs or records) should appear towards the front of the folder.

Keep active and inactive/archived files.

Stop wasting time wading through files that are no longer active! Remove inactive files and place them in a secure, dead storage location or another section of your filing cabinet.

Weed/clean out files regularly.

Any filing cabinet or filing area can hold only so many pieces of paper, folders or documents. Set a regular schedule to review and clean/out your files either quarterly, semi-annually or annually to keep papers in check.

Now to you…what filing issues seem to cause you the most trouble? Labeling items? Retrieving items? Perhaps it’s just setting aside the time to do the filing? Leave a comment below and join in the conversation!

Kick chaos to the curb with The Order Expert! Subscribe to our email updates and receive free access to The Order Expert’s mini eBook, 10 Chaos-Kicking Tips for a Clutter-Free Closet. You can also stay in touch with The Order Expert on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Google+.

Want to bring your life and/or small business into blissful balance? Please visit Rashelle’s coaching and consulting site at www.rashelleisip.com.

Time Management Tip: Four Ways to Save Time…by Giving Time

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Image of phrase Giving Time = Saving Time Do you want to save time during the day?

All you have to do is give yourself and others around you some time…

Today’s post takes another interesting approach to time management by focusing on giving more of your time and attention (yes, you read that correctly) in order to save time.

Intrigued? Below are four tips you can put to use right away:

Give adequate time for meetings and appointments.

A colleague has asked you to meet with her to discuss an upcoming project and you’ve got 15 free minutes right now…the only problem is that your colleague needs an hour’s worth of time with you! Don’t give into time temptation; forgo squeezing meetings and appointments into inadequate parcels of time. Doing so only short-changes everyone involved. In the example above, you’d most likely spend more time and effort after your impromptu meeting trying to confirm and clarify items than if you just gave your colleague more time for the meeting in the first place.

Give people time to complete actions.

When requesting information, an item or favor, take a step back and give the other party a chance to complete the request. We may live in a fast-paced digital world, but the truth is not all requests can be processed on the spot on the turn of a dime! This can be a difficult fact to accept (especially when you want or need something right away) but you’ll save yourself from unnecessary back-and-forth communications with the other party on whether they’ve started a request or not. Take a breather and give ‘em a chance to respond.

Give specific dates and times for potential meetings.

If you’re booking an appointment or meeting, cut to the chase and offer specific dates and times you are available. It’s much easier to work within a definite framework of availability as in, “I’m available on Tuesday from 1pm to 3pm,” rather than a fuzzy, “ I might be able to make it on Tuesday afternoon.” Giving specific information makes it easier to make a decision; it’s either “Yes, I can make it.” or “No, I can’t make it.” Simple, huh?

Give yourself more time to learn new skills/routines/exercises.

Are you considering starting a new workout routine at the gym? Perhaps you’re interested in learning how to use your new digital camera? When you know you will be starting something new, be it a skill, routine or exercise, give yourself the gift comfort and add a buffer of time into your schedule. There’s nothing worse than trying to learn something new in a compressed amount of time, getting frustrated in the process and then having to worry about your next appointment.

Now to you…what other “giving” actions can you think of when it comes to managing your time? Leave a comment below and join in the conversation!

Kick chaos to the curb with The Order Expert! Sign up for our free email updates featuring organizing, productivity, time management tips, inspiration and more. You can also stay in touch with The Order Expert on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Google+.

Want to bring your life and/or small business into blissful balance? Please visit Rashelle’s coaching and consulting site at www.rashelleisip.com.

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